Medical School

This is a clerkship I was extremely excited about, because it was a field I was seriously considering going into! In fact, up until my third year Ob/Gyn rotation I was almost positive I would be a pediatrician some day. The clerkship was a lot of fun and definitely made my decision difficult, but as you already know Ob/Gyn ended up winning my heart…but not because Pedi let me down.

Pediatrics

This specialty is focused on children, there’s a lot of “normal” in pediatrics and you tend to get to know your patients and their families very well. The residency to become a general pediatrician is 3 years and you can specialize in any number of things, from neonatology to oncology, after you finish.

The Clerkship

8 Weeks: One week is spent in specialty clinics, one week with neonatologists in the NICU, two are dedicated to inpatient pediatrics and the rest are spent in general pediatric clinic.

We had frequent morning lectures and case presentations by the residents to help prepare us for the NBME exam. These were *key* in doing well on this exam for me.

One overnight call while on the week of Neonatology.

Daily Life

Clinic Weeks: Basically 8am – 5pm.

Inpatient: Usually pre-round about 6am, round about 7am and spend the day admitting patients and making sure all is well with admitted patients. Checkout around 5:30pm.

Neonatology: Pre-round about 6:30am, round about 7:30am, and spend the day attending deliveries, taking care of procedures (lumbar punctures, circumcisions, etc.), and checking up on lab work/radiology for patients

Pediatrics Clerkship Books

At our school we have a wonderful physician who provided excellent clerkship notes that were key in doing well on the exam. I wish everyone had those notes.

Case Files Pediatrics: Easily the best-written book you can buy for preparing for the shelf exam. If you know this book well, you will score high on the shelf.

Blueprints Pediatrics: This book is decent if you need a text-book style, rather than case-style, book to read. I had it as a free hand-me-down and referenced occasionally, but I don’t know that I would have been very happy with it as a purchase if I had to pay for it. It was just ok.

First Aid for the Pediatrics Clerkship: Again I had this book as a hand-me-down and it was just okay. However, had I not had the notes from our clerkship coordinator, this & Blueprints may have been a tad more useful to me. I think we are spoiled on this rotation with great teaching.

The Shelf: This shelf exam is very age-oriented (whoda thunk it?). What I mean by that is knowing key things like what heart defect causes a “blue baby” immediately after birth and what heart defect causes a “blue baby” months after birth is what will help you do well on this shelf. A lot of the diseases have similar symptoms, but appear at different ages and this is key. Also, knowing basic milestones and developmental timelines will gain you easy points. I felt like it was heavy in infectious disease, cardiology, and respiratory.

What I Like

The Patients…well, most of them: I love kids and I loved that on this rotation I got work with kids all the time! They are so resilient and seeing them overcome things is really amazing.

Pediatricians: In general, this is a very upbeat, happy field. People tend to have great job satisfaction and be overall happy with their life as a pediatrician and it definitely shows in working with them. I loved the positive morale and environment.

Family-Friendliness: Pediatrics tends to be one of the areas of medicine that is relatively family friendly. Most of the residents have children and if they don’t already have them most want them some day.

The Hours: Compared to surgical specialties, the time-commitment of this specialty is a little bit better. Because pediatrics is heavily clinical, it offers a more consistent routine. Although, there are definitely rotations in pediatrics that are more intense.

What I Didn’t Like

The Patients…a few of them: I loved working with babies and toddlers and little kids, but the ins and outs of adolescent medicine made me feel like I was not cut out to be a pediatrician. I simply am not hard-wired to effectively discuss tobacco and alcohol use with a 13 year old.

So. Much. Clinic: I like clinic in small doses, but Pediatrics involves so much clinic and very few procedures, no surgeries, and a lot of chit-chat.

Well-Child Checks: To be a good pediatrician I believe you truly have to be interested in normal development of children and, unless it’s the normal development of *my* children, it honestlyjust doesn’t fascinate me.

Lack Of Intellectual Interest: The subject important to pediatrics just don’t fascinate me like some other areas of medicine do.

Overall, I did really enjoy this clerkship. I loved most of the patients, the parents didn’t bother me, and the work was okay. Nothing about pediatrics really fascinated me the way reproduction and women’s health does and nothing caught my attention and heart the way reproductive endocrinology has, but pediatrics is a great field. The hours were tempting, the morale was attractive, and the people were great…but in the end it just wasn’t me.

I remember when I was considering applying to medical school being terrified that becoming a doctor meant I’d never be able to have a family. Every Google search led to horror stories about divorce, blogs berating physicians that chose to have children, and forums full of miserable doctors. I almost chose a different career path purely out of fear.

As I’ve mentioned before I strive to make this blog a balance of medicine and other things – particularly family. I want my blog to serve as a place for pre-meds and medical students with these worries to find a positive story.

I love blogging about medical training and education, but the goal of Mind On Medicine has always been to create a place to write what we might sit down and talk about over a cup of coffee…and I can guarantee right now there would be lots of talk about mothering multiples, being a working mom, breastfeeding twins, returning to work, sleeping in 2 hour chunks, etc.

So, in order to continue in my endeavor to have work-life balance on this blog, I’m going to be starting what we will oh-so-creatively refer to as “Twin Tuesday.” On Tuesdays I’ll share anecdotes about adorable babies (obviously), but I also hope to delve into some of the challenges and excitements of being a mother in medicine.

I hope if you stumbled on this blog and you’re worried about medicine and family life and marriage that you will stick around! It’s not easy, but it is possible…it’s an adventure that I’m so glad I have chosen to embark on. And, while I still have a ways to go, knowing what I know now I’d still choose to do it this way!

Also, if you’re considering throwing your dreams of medicine out the window because you think you have to choose one or the other, I hope you’ll email me first so we can chat. I’ve been in your shoes!

First off – I’m back from blogging maternity leave – celebration dances may commence! Oh, you thought you got rid of me because I birthed two babies at one time? Oh no, friends, it won’t be nearly that easy to get rid of me.

Now, for our regularly scheduled post of insightful information.

If I had a dollar for every time someone has asked me “hey you did all those interviews (while ridiculously huge and pregnant), did you get a job yet?” I’d probably have 14 pesos by now. Nobody outside of medicine understands how this works…and quite honestly, I can’t imagine why they would want to…but I’m going to try to break it down into simple bullets as well as I can. This is an extremely basic overview.

Applying To Residency – The Basics

Medical school is four years long.

Sometime during the third year most people choose a specialty. I chose Ob/Gyn.

In the Fall semester of your fourth year residency applications are due.

Some specialties have different application processes, this blog discusses the most common.

Interviewing For Residency Positions

After applications are in programs offer interviews.

Interview season is generally from September – January of fourth year.

People do an average of 10 interviews, depending on competitiveness.

Applicants Make A “Rank List”

After all interviews are completed we rank each place we interviewed based on how badly we would like to go there. I interviewed 10 places and ranked 7 – you’re allowed to leave any places you don’t think you’d want to go off your list and this guarantees you won’t end up there.

Rank lists this year were due February 20, 2013. (yesterday! eek!!)

Programs Make A “Rank List”

Programs rank applicants who interviewed according to how badly they want them to join their program. Like applicants, programs are allowed to choose not to rank a certain person if they really don’t think they’re a good fit for the program.

The Match

A very large, Alien-manned computer located somewhere between here and Venus uses a mysterious, Big Bang Theory-type algorithm to calculate where an applicant will “match.”

This pairing goes in favor of the applicant – so applicants get matched to the highest place on their list that also ranked them.

The idea is to put the largest number of applicants possible at the programs they really liked. This is the extent of my understanding. If you’d like the nitty gritty on how the actual algorithm works you can read about it here.

The Monday before Match Day applicants find out if they matched. Applicants who don’t match enter into the Supplemental Offer Acceptance Program (SOAP), that’s a whole blog post in itself.

Match Day – March 15, 2013

MATCH DAY! Friday you gather with your classmates for a big, fancy ceremony and celebration. At our school we have an exciting morning filled with friends and food. Everyone gets an envelope with their name on the outside and destiny on the inside. At 11am we all open them together to find out where we will be spending the next 3-7 years. Obviously, everyone hopes for their #1 choice, but most people are happy with any of their top 3 or 4.

So, no I haven’t technically gotten a job from all those interviews I did…yet! I will find out on Monday, March 11 IF I got a job and Friday, March 15 WHERE I got a job.

Residency is your first real job as a doctor, we will all technically receive our MD in May. However, residency is continued supervised training. So, while we are doctors and we do get paid (instead of paying tuition, finally), we are just baby doctors. The average resident physician pay is about $45,000/year and the work weeks are typically 80 hours long. That comes out to $notverymuch/hr for someone with a doctorate level education, but it makes sense – we’re still learning how to be really great doctors and someone has to make sure we are doing a good job!

The past week I’ve been meandering down the interview trail hoping to avoid death by dysentery along the way…ugh…wait…wrong trail.

Anyhow, I really have been traveling around Central Texas the past week for residency interviews and along the way the most commonly asked question has been:

“Why exactly do you blog?”

Most often the question has been posed with genuine interest and good intentions, but it has been occasionally paired with a single raised eyebrow and skeptical tone. Both reactions I understand and both are great reasons for me to address the question here. Would it be appropriate to refer someone to a URL mid-interview?

No? Oops…maybe I really have been in the blogosphere too long.

So, here are the 6 best reasons I can come up with on this half-cup of coffee I’ve had:

#1: I enjoy it.

I initially started writing in this blog 2 years ago (holy wow, have I really been typing random rants and information for two full years? You people are so tolerant.) because I felt like medical school had sucked the creativity out of me. I can’t paint or draw (except those awesome stick figures cursed with Streptococcus agalactiae and Pseudomonas), so naturally blogging was my only option.

#2: Before medical school I worried…about work-life balance, about studying, about family.

I feel like I have a perspective to share that would’ve given me hope as a pre-med. I wanted to write about whatever we might sit down and talk about over coffee. I wanted to show that a work-life balance was not impossible for a woman in medicine and I wanted to share my experiences. Everyone doesn’t go to medical school, but a lot of people seem to be genuinely interested in our experiences here, particularly those considering a career in medicine. This feeling to share the possibility of balance in medicine became even more urgent after seeing that everyone was not promoting the fact that it is possible.

The bottom line is our patients are going online to find their health information and, in my eyes (and the eyes of some awesome health bloggers like SeattleMamaDoc) that means we have a responsibility to be online with them.

#5: It’s a fun challenge.

Make no mistake, friends – maintaining a blog is no easy feat. It’s a fun and interesting endeavor, but it does take some time and patience. I’ve enjoyed seeing Mind On Med evolve into what it is today and I’m excited to see where it’s headed in the future. I love the challenge of putting my thoughts into words and of designing and orchestrating the back end of the blog. It’s exciting to see what posts get a lot of chatter on the Twitters (usually not the posts I expect) and it’s fun to hear others opinions on what I have to say.

#6: I get to learn from people I never would’ve met if I wasn’t online.

I’ve interacted with people from more countries than I can count, specifically through the Medical Education Monday series. People from all over the world have taught me what it’s like to train to be a physician in their country and I’ve had the opportunity to share it with y’all. I’ve also had the chance to meet (or “meet”) medical students, doctors, and other providers from around the US and learn about how medicine is practiced in different parts of our country. These are not conversations I would have had without my involvement in social media and I think there’s a lot to be said for a tool that makes it so easy for us to step outside of our little bubbles…and comfort zones!

Why are you involved in social media and/or blogging…as a patient, provider, or student? I’m interested to hear what keeps you coming back to the wonderful web-world every day.

Let me start off by saying I’m learning so much at this conference. Dr. Larry Chu has done a fabulous job organizing and orchestrating, a true class act of knowledge, technology, and passion.

Everything about this conference has me nodding my head and saying, “Yes! THAT is why I’m involved in social media & health technology.” Med X has maintained a human side by giving a loud voice to patients, something I think is incredibly important to maintaining compassion in healthcare, and still managed to be on top of medical information by including a great mix of emerging health technology.

I’m so disappointed in the lack of involvement given to those of us in the throws of medical education. We are here. We are watching. Many are even help organize and offer ideas to the planning of the conference. But, we have no voice…

This is not a new thing at medical conferences, medical students and young physicians (residents, newly practicing docs) are often left out of speaking positions and panels. Perhaps it’s due to time and money constraints. Or maybe the reason is that we don’t have the expertise that many of these wonderfully seasoned docs have and we aren’t a traditionally valued opinion group. I don’t think those are great reasons, though. In fact, I think that lack of experience is a great reason we should have a voice.

Why do we deserve a voice?

We are in a unique place in our lives – not quite general population, but not quite healthcare provider. We still have the idealism that not fully understanding the medical system allows, but we have enough insight into the medicine to express ideas that are consistent with medical practice.

Why are we valuable in the ePatient realm?

One of the biggest echoings I’ve heard from the amazing patients here is that their stories aren’t being heard by their providers. I talk a little in this post about our role as medical students allowing us to be more present with patients. We have time to listen to patients. We are afforded an opportunity to hear their stories, because we don’t have 25 patients to round on – we have 2. We can offer an infantile medical perspective mixed with a healthy naivety of knowing patient stories.

We deserve a voice at these conferences, because we have a lot to offer. We deserve a voice, because we are the future. We deserve a voice, because sometimes being an expert isn’t always the best way to develop new and innovative ideas. Steve Jobs could’ve told you that.

Coming into medical school I think many of us have an image in our head of all the great things we’ll get to do. In general most of them probably include a collage of things like saving lives, using defibrillators, performing surgery…you know, TV medical drama-esque stuff.

In reality, medical students very rarely save anyone’s life and generally the extent of our surgical experience stops at holding bladder blades and retractors.

That’s not to say that we are not sometimes a very integral and important part of the healthcare team, only that it’s often in the patient’s best interest if we learn slowly. Fortunately for you all, that typically means starting with small things like sutures and staples, not being in charge of stopping a bleeding great artery or removing an infected appendix.

However, one relatively universal opportunity we get before giving up our “MS” designation is the chance to deliver a baby.

And by chance I mean, if you don’t deliver a baby you will not pass your Ob/Gyn clerkship.

So, last semester I got to deliver babies…with the help of some well-versed doctors, of course.

During my Ob/Gyn clerkship it was me, on several occasions, who handed a tiny little body to it’s exhausted mother as she took in the image of her child’s face for the first time. I was given the privilege to be the one who wiped a precious little face and whispered, “Look momma! A tiny baby boy…he is absolutely perfect!” while tears of happiness mixed with droplets of sweat and settled on her relieved cheeks.

Last semester I got to deliver babies. As it turns out that experience, one I never expected to be so supremely moved by, will soon become a part of my career. However, everyone doesn’t end up going into Obstetrics and Gynecology, but even so most remember their first experience with birth. Some will recall it as shocking or scary, others as bloody and jarring, but almost all will tell you it’s nothing short of amazing…even if they hate obstetrics.

There are few things we will distinctly remember from these years, but here’s a few experiences (some wonderful, others painfully heart-wrenching) that I will never forget:

My very first patient.

My first patient who died (who also happened to be my very first patient).

Witnessing the preterm delivery of a baby at just 24 weeks gestation.

My first day in the OR and how lost I was scrubbing in.

Suturing something other than a pig’s foot for the first time.

Finding fetal heart tones for the first time.

The deafening silence of not finding fetal heart tones when they should be there.

How quickly blood can fill an abdomen.

Seeing a patient’s blood pressure drop to 45/?? on the monitor during surgery.

Watching an infertility couple cry at the site of their baby’s heartbeat on ultrasound.

There are probably so many more, but these are some of the things that have imprinted themselves on my brain forever. These are experiences I carry with me – some I hope to experience many more times, others the opposite – all I hope have made me a more caring, compassionate future doctor.

What are some things that are imprinted on your mind from many years ago in your career? If you’re a medical student, what experiences will you never forget?

The past year has been one of unexpected and broad personal discovery, involving aspects of heartbreaking disappointment and sheer, unsurpassable joy.

Since July of last year, when I started third year, I’ve met amazing people, learned incredible things (including learning how much I don’t know) and been afforded unique opportunities.

I can confidently say that the third year of medical school was one of the most life-changing years of my life. Not only did I (finally) figure out what I want to be when I grow up, but I experienced breathtaking highs, gut-wrenching lows, unexpected humor, and a back door glimpse into a mysterious side of life…and death…that many never see.

Overall, I feel like this year, both personally and professionally, I’ve truly experienced an overwhelming breadth of humanity…and honestly, I never saw it coming.

I just wanted to thank y’all for making this journey with me. I have received so much advice, support, encouragement, and love from Mind On Med readers and through Twitter. I am continually thankful that I choose to share my experiences here – not only to give others a glimpse into this life, but so I can look back someday and remember how pivotal these years were in helping me become the physician I will eventually be.

I’m expecting that the next year will be an adventure in itself – two new babies (!!) who will hopefully keep cooking until December (oh, did you miss that – yah we aren’t getting another dog – no my friend, we met our four-legged & furry quota long ago), residency applications and interviews, Match Day in March, and all kinds of fourth year fun (hopefully involving significantly more DIY projects than third year). Thanks for sticking with me through the craziness!

Ok, I do believe that is enough mushiness for one year.

Here’s a few of the most viewed posts on Mind On Med from the past year:

Today we have a wonderful guest blogger, Andy Skovsen, with us to talk about medical education in Denmark! Andy lives in Copenhagen, but seems to have been a bit of a nomad having lived in the US a while and just returned from working in South Africa! He has also spent some time in the Danish Military and still works part-time with them. I must say, I’m a little jealous of all the great culture and scenery he seems to have experienced. Andy graduated from medical school in 2008 and has been pursuing a career in Surgery, with a particular interest in trauma and emergency medicine. He has a great blog called Doctor’s Without Filter, which is co-authored by himself and two others in Danish (Go-Go Google Translate). Andy got married last summer (Congrats!!) to a doctor who is currently pursuing a career in Cardiology and in his free time (which sounds like it might be severely limited!) he enjoys sports like skiing, mountain biking, diving, and surfing! I have to admit, I want to be friends with Andy – he sounds like tons of fun!

Getting In:

How old is one when they begin medical school?

Usually around 18-20. Some gain entrance through a separate set of university specific merits and tests, and are usually a couple of years older.

What exams does one have to take to get in?

Entrance is granted through application. You take finals from “gymnasium” (roughly equivalent to last year of high school and first two years of college in the US). Entrance is based on your GPA after this. Approximately 10% gain entrance through a separate quota system, which is defined by each of the 4 universities in Denmark offering a medical education and usually involves testing as wells as merits.

Is there any required pre-requisite coursework?

Certain levels of Maths, Danish, English, Physics and Chemistry are required to apply. These can be supplemented post-gymnasium graduation.

Is it a competitive occupation?

Very competitive. The number of applications far exceed the number of places. At the moment, it’s the most sought after university degree in the country.

What are you called at this stage of training?

Medical student.

Being In:

How long is it?

6 years. After 3 years, you are given a Bachelors diploma, which is pretty much useless unless you want to transfer to a different Masters degree.

How are the years broken down?

This varies from university to university, but generally broken into 12 semesters with the first 6 being pre-clinical, and the last 6 being clinical.

Describe your typical day.

Varies immensely for each semester/rotation. The common denominator seems to be end-of-semester exams, which increases workload and hours hitting the books to all waking hours and eliminating partying to zero.

If you choose a specialty, when do you have to decide by?

After graduation you do one year of internship, then you apply for positions in your specialty.

What are you called at this stage of training?

Medical Student

Getting Out:

What exams do you have to take?

Once you take your final exams from medical school, you’re pretty much done with exams.

Do most people graduate?

Students drop out of medical school mostly to switch to other degrees. I remember starting medical school, during the first lecture, we were told to “look to your right and look to your left, those two people will not be here when you graduate.” A rough estimate tells me that about 1/4 to 1/3 of starters do not finish.

When are you finally considered a “doctor?”

After passing the final year of medical school you get your diploma, then you sign the Hippocratic Oath and become a doctor.

Do you have additional training after MS or do you start working immediately?

One year of internship is mandatory. The internship is split into two 6-month positions, the first usually being in a hospital, and the second often (80%) being in primary care/family medicine. Each year is a lottery, where all graduates are assigned a random number correlating with the amount of graduates is a number internships. The graduate that received number 1 in the lottery gets first pick and so fourth. Positions are all across the (small) country. The system is perceived as unfair by many, but is not looking to be changed any time soon.

What’s the average debt for attendance?

None! Medical school is paid by the state. When attending university, you also get a small allowance (about $750/month) to live on, but books you must pay for. Living expenses are rather high, especially in Copenhagen, so many students work and may also take loans.

What are you called at this stage of training?

Doctor, Intern or Resident.

Being Out:

What’s the average salary?

Salary is fixed. Currently base salary is around $4,500/month on top of this you get a small remuneration for being on call, etc. Usually comes to around $5,000/month. On top of this comes taxes (50%+). Through your career your salary increases in increments.

Is the job security good?

It’s good. 100% of graduates are employed in internships. In the long run, some specialties are very difficult to get into and others you can walk right into after internship.

Can you switch specialties?

Yes, you can switch, but you start back from the first year after internship.

What are you called at this stage of training?

Very interesting! Thanks so much for sharing, Andy – I really enjoyed reading about medical education in your country and I know these posts are some of the most popular on Mind On Medicine, so I’m sure others enjoyed the information as well.

I finished up my Surgery Clerkship a while back and thought it was about time I gave you guys a peek into the daily life of a medical student rotating through surgery! I was a little terrified going in, but the residents all mostly turned out to be very down to earth (hard-working and busy, but down to earth) and helpful.

Surgery

A specialty that encompasses a variety of sub-specialties and involves a lot of…surgeries…who’d have guessed it? The residency for general surgery is usually five years and fellowships to specialize in other things are an additional 1 or more years after that. All in all – it’s takes a lot time to become a surgeon.

The Clerkship

8 Weeks – Five weeks are split between the services covered in our hospital, including (but not limited to) trauma, vascular, general, burn (and burn ICU), SICU, etc. We also spent one week on a specialty (mine was Pediatric Surgery) and one week on Urology with the final half-week reserved for shelf-studying.

Occasional lectures, grand rounds, tumor boards and meetings.

Eight overnight calls – Basically arrive at the hospital around 5:30am as per usual and leave the next day around 8am or so.

Daily Life

Usually arrive around 5:30am or 6:00am and round on your patients, be ready for morning checkout by 7:00am.

Morning Checkout: Goes through all the patients admitted overnight and ensures all surgeries for the day are scheduled and covered by residents and attendings.

The rest of the day is reserved for surgeries, it’s really dependent on what service you’re on.

Typically home between 5pm and 8pm, depending on the service & how busy they are.

Occasionally you’ll go to clinic in the afternoon instead of scrubbing into surgeries.

Surgery Clerkship Books

Pestana Notes for Surgery – Easily the best and most used resource for this shelf exam, you can read about it here. Our school provided copies of it, so I’m not sure where to buy them.

NMS Surgery Textbook – I didn’t use this, but heard positive things about it from people who wanted more text than just cases.

Surgical Recall – MUST HAVE for pocket book on this rotation! This book is so useful, even for other rotations. I guarantee it will have 85% of the pimp questions you receive on this rotation right there inside it. I used it to review relevant chapters before surgeries.

Overall – This shelf exam is very Internal Medicine heavy, don’t just study surgery books! I made the mistake of sticking solely to Surgical books and while I still did okay, I think reviewing some internal medicine would’ve served me well.

What I Like

Working With My Hands: This field is centered greatly around the use of tactile skills. I liked that we were always doing something and getting immediate feedback on whether our interventions were successful or not.

Trauma Call: I did not expect to love trauma call, but it was so fun! There’s something exciting about being able to immediately solve an awful problem with your own two hands (and by “own two hands” I mean…other people’s hands…because let’s be honest, my hands don’t solve anything other than AgenesisOfTheCoffeeCup at this point).

Pediatric Surgery: This field was so fascinating to me. I saw an extremely skilled surgeon operate on a teeny, tiny 2 month old baby (who was born around 24 weeks). It was amazing. The whole week I was on Pedi Surg I was in love – it was great. However, in the end I knew it was not for me…mostly because I have no interest in doing 5 years of general surgery to maybe or maybe not get into one of the most competitive fellowships out there.

What I Dislike

Constantly Standing In One Place: Some surgeries are LONG – particularly some of the trauma surgeries and vascular surgeries – and standing in one place for 10 hour surgeries on a regular basis makes me wanna vomit. A couple days per week operating sounds great to me, but some of these surgeons are operating 5, 6, 7 days a week for 10 or 12 hrs a day. I just don’t have the stamina for that.

Variety: I can’t decide if there was too much variety or too little. All we did was operate – there was nothing else! There was tons of variety in that they possess the skills to do a huge number of different surgeries, but all they do is surgery!

No Pregnant Women: Unless it’s a dire emergency, general surgeons do not operate on pregnant women. I missed that patient population terribly.

Lack of Relationships: Except in very rare circumstances, these doctors are (rightly) not focused on getting to know their patients or developing long-term relationships with them. I missed getting to know my patients and having some continuity of care.

Often A Sad Specialty: A lot of surgeries end up with less than optimal outcomes, especially in trauma surgery. Most of the patients are very sick and many of them don’t make it. I missed having the occasional healthy or happy patient.

Overall, I enjoyed the rotation, but it was extremely exhausting and very emotionally taxing. The hours were long (often students were exceeding the intern hour restrictions) and the work was very different than what I want in my day-to-day life. While I enjoy utilizing my tactile skills (or, developing them, rather), I don’t want surgery to be the sole focus of my career. I really enjoy being a part of a patient’s care long-term and getting to know them a bit better and I’d miss that if I were to decide to go into this specialty.

I’ve finally buckled down and started studying for Step 2 CS, the third of four USMLE “Step” exams we have to take to be a fully licensed physician. So far I’d say it’s going as well as can be expected…

I plan on taking the test at the end of June and having a week off before fourth year starts.

On that note, holy wow – when did fourth year become weeks away? Our fourth years have been doctors for 2 weeks now, which makes my class the next in line for graduation.

While we’re on the subject of graduation, let’s talk about something I saw while doing a little perusing on Pinterest today (you know…while I was…studying…):

Now, I’m sure this is a great blog (actually, I’m not sure seeing as I can’t read a lick of Turkish, but we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt), but they have totally missed the mark on this one.

Let’s put it this way, do not buy any of that crap for your med school graduate. Just don’t.

Actually, there are some adorably decorated cookies or something on there as well. I’m pretty sure anyone who isn’t diabetic or lactose intolerant can appreciate some delicious iced sugar cookies, so that one I’ll make an exception for…you can buy them cookies.

Along the same lines, I’d probably stay away from stethoscopes, speculums and pen lights.

If you feel so compelled as to buy your medical school graduate something, take advice from this more appropriate Yahoo article and go with a something useful – like a Hep B vaccinated house keeper to clean their house (which likely still has dirty anatomy scrubs and scalpels laying in the back of a closet somewhere) or money to put towards the outrageous debt they’ve become blissfully married to over the past four years.

Or a car, that’d be a nice gift, too.

But seriously, a Starbucks gift card is probably your best bet for winning over your future intern.

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Danielle Jones, MD

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